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to the drawing board
Expect more changes as makeover sputters
By Heidi Vogt
Denial can be an invaluable way of preserving one's dignity, as anyone who has ever thrown a party only to have no one show up can attest.
That's roughly the situation MSNBC is in right now. Three months after overhauling its primetime schedule, the network has almost nothing to show for it, and no recourse but to overhaul it some more.
So it has done, booting Ashleigh Banfield and Jerry Nachman shows out of primetime and bringing in "Dateline" producer Marc Rossenwasser to take charge of weeknights, all the while spinning the moves as the routine adjustments of a network that is pointed more or less is the right direction.
But critics say MSNBC executives are deluded if they think they have already hit on the solutions to their ills.
"Every one of their changes has failed," says Reese Schonfeld, former CEO of CNN.
"They said they could fix it. They haven't fixed it. Donahue is running third. That's intolerable for any network."
MSNBC's problems run deeper than Bill O'Reilly's drawing power.
In an April Brand Identity Study of cable news networks, viewers ranked MSNBC well below both CNN and Fox News on all counts, including the network's willingness to "try new things," according to Beta Research Corporation.
That perception, at least, should have improved somewhat now that MSNBC sports a whole new lineup.
But the viewers surveyed were also concerned that MSNBC didn't seem to offer high quality programming. Fifty-six percent of respondents said they considered MSNBC programming high quality, compared to 66 percent for CNN and 68 percent for Fox News.
"MSNBC is running fourth in a three horse race," says Schonfeld. "They're going to have to keep shuffling anchors until they see some improvement."
If the folks at MSNBC feel the situation is dire, however, they're not letting on.
"This is a marathon, not a sprint," says Paulette Song, director of media relations at MSNBC. The changes "are part of the process. It's been a mere twelve weeks, which is not a lot of time to redefine what this network is about."
Banfield's cancellation does not imply a shift in strategy on MSNBC's part, says Song.
"It really had to do with Ashleigh wanting to get off the road. She just really wanted to have a different pace and a different environment to cover news. Banfield will still be reporting for MSNBC and will sometimes host 'MSNBC Investigates.'"
"Our goal is to grow and to continue delivering unsurpassed quality of the news," says Song. "We've never wavered on that front."
To be successful, Schonfeld believes MSNBC needs to move away from newsmagazine content in favor of breaking news.
"They have too much 'Dateline' and not enough day to day news," he says.
MSNBC also needs to capitalize on its younger viewing audience - an audience that will start watching more news if the U.S. goes to war and might pull up the ratings, says Schonfeld.
One thing MSNBC does have going for it is a corporate parent with nearly bottomless resources, he notes.
"There are a lot of people who are dedicated to the network and its format. I don't think General Electric is going to give up on it."
October 16, 2002© 2002 Media Life
-Heidi Vogt is a staff writer for Media Life
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